1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wood shingles and to wood shakes which may be used on the roof or as siding for a building structure. More particularly, the invention relates to wood shingles and to wood shakes which may be assembled to form shingle panels which may be used on the roof or as siding for a building structure. Even more particularly this invention relates to improved shingle and/or shake panels prefabricated with a plurality of shingles or shakes attached to a strapping member transverse to the length of the shingles which member is positioned on the underside of the shingles and positioned from the tip end toward the butt end of the shingles a distance which is substantially equal to the exposure width of the shingles as applied to a roof or a sidewall of a structure.
For the purpose of the present invention the designation "shingle" is used in its generic sense to mean a small thin piece of building material of wood or other substance which usually is tapered from butt to tip, but may be of uniform thickness, and which may be machine sawn, or split on both sides, or have one side sawn and its other side split.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The rising cost of labor and materials have made building construction and especially the construction of homes increasingly more expensive. In addition the cost of heating and cooling a building has increased many times over in recent years. In order to keep the costs of construction, heating, cooling and maintenance within reasonable limits and therefore affordable to the general public, innovations have been necessary. By prefabricating and precutting many of the components of the structure at a manufacturing facility, many procedures may be used to improve the fabrication efficiency and improve the quality of the components as well as reduce the construction time.
Applying shingles or shakes to a roof or to a sidewall individually is a tedious process and requires considerable skill, dexterity and judgement to select shingles or shakes of appropriate width from a selection of random width shingles or shakes in order to break the joints appropriately between the shingles or shakes in successive courses. In order to insure a weathertight roof, the joints in any three successive courses must be offset. The width of such offset may vary but should be at least about 1 inch. Also, the space between the shingles at each joint must range between about 1/8 and 3/8 inches to allow for the expansion and the contraction of shingles under varying weather conditions.
There has been efforts made toward reducing the time and the skill level needed for the installation of shingles on the roof or on the sidewall of a dwelling or other builiding structure. However, all of the efforts fall short of providing for a roof or sidewall covering of shingles which is relativelyeasy and fast to apply and which provides a roof or sidewall which will last for a long period of time because there is adequate ventilation of the shingle surface and there provision for proper and adequate water drainage thus allowing the shingles to dry out. The U.S. Patents discussed hereinbelow are illustrative of such efforts. They all fail in one wayu or another to provide for ther features and the advantages of the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 685,102 to Chrestien provides for a corrugated metal strip to be attached between the shingles for air circulation purposes, It should be noted however that Chrestien teaches the use of metal corrugated strips which are attached to the separate shingles when they have been put on the roof as a course of shingles. According to the figures of the Chrestien patent, air cannot easily, if at all, flow from the butt of a course to the tip end of a course above because the tip end of the shingle is touching the roof boards. Further, the shingles are not prior attached to form shingle panels and the strip is not used for purposes of aligning subsequent courses of shingles so as to enssure that the portion of the shingle which is to the weather, i.e., the exposure width, is constant. Also, of significance is the face that water drainage is not readily accomodated because of the tip end contact with the roof boards.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,102,107 and 4,050,209 both to Barker and U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,639 to Ferguson disclose shingles attached to an elongated strip to facilitate positioning of the shingles on a roof. In Ferguson the "integrating strips" are held in place so that it can be easily removed from the shingle strip after the shingle strip is attached to the roof. The alignment of shingle course to subsequent shingle course is done by using the butt end of the shingle rather than the taperede end or tip end. The shingles are placed subbstantially flat onto the roof boards so there is no spacing provided for drying air flow. The Barker patents teach a backing board which is of such a width that the boards are in edge to edge contact between courses and thus there is no provision for drying air flow. The Barker backing board is used for alignment purposes and becomes a part of the roof system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,081 to Martin et al is similar to the Barker patent except for the strip 15 which is the kernal of the Martin et al invention. This strip 15 is used in combination with the sheathing or base strip 11. In all of the embodiments illustrated by Martin et al there is no provision for air flow and water drainage that would appear to be effective to exyend the life of the shingles.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,636,226 to Holland is directed to bevel siding. However, it is worth notin the use of two ribs 12 and 14 which combine to provide the bevel of the siding boards when such boards are used to side a building. The primary spacing and pitch however is attained by way of the vertical batten.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,309 to Ferguson discloses and teaches a shingle panel which comprises two courses--a shorter and a longer shingle one on top of the otheer. On the underside of the longer shingle is a strip or cleat against which the tips of an under course shingle panel rest. This cleat serves to align the courses. Here again the tip end of the undercourse shingles of the shingle panel appear to rest against the roof boards and thus not allowing for the flow of drying air or the drainage of moisture which may collect between the shingle and the roof boards.
There is no teaching in the prior art of providing for the combination of; drying air flow, shingle course alignment and water drainage all achieved primarily through the use of a properly position strapping member on the underneath surface of a series of shingles or shakes positioned next to each other and mounted with the tip ends in horizontal alignment.
It is a well-known fact with almost all roofs where shingles are used that the character of such shingles is what is known in the trade as "sawed" or "sawn" shingles, which, when laid in courses, are brought very coosely together, so much so that air is not permitted to pass freely between the different courses of shingles, which shingles will last very much longer if arrangements are provided for permitting air-spaces between the different courses of shingles. In the past when roofs had shingles put on, strapping was attached directly to and perpendicular to the roof rafters. The shingles were then nailed to the strapping. Thus, there was adequate and in fact extensive ventilation provided to the shingles. This ventilation permitted the shingles to dry out very quickly and thereby extending the lifetime measurably. In persent building construction, a skin or covering is placed over the roof rafters and shingles are attached to the skin. When the shingles get soaking wet they do not dry out because they are laid directly onto the roof skin. Even when tar paper or felt paper is placed over the roof skin and the shingles placed on the felt paper, the shingles do not dry. If fact, they tend to remain wet for an even longer period of time. Shingles which cannot dry tend to dteriorate or rot. The panels of the present invention overcome the many disadvantages of the prior art shingles and shingle panels and provide for adequate ventilation and drainage.